Drinking liquids with meals is conducive to increase in weight: not more than one small cup of tea or coffee, or one small glass of water, should be taken with a meal. Water should, however, be taken between meals; it is dangerous to cut the amount of water taken in twenty-four hours down to a small quantity, as a deficiency of water in the system is liable to prevent the kidneys from doing their proper work. Chocolate and cocoa are fattening. Beer and ale are well known to have flesh-forming properties, and all alcoholic beverages are better avoided. Napping after meals aids in putting on flesh, and should not be indulged in. Standing for twenty minutes or half an hour after meals is a help in preventing the deposition of fat about the hips and abdomen, the erect position promoting a more equal distribution of the products of nutrition. Any tendency to constipation is to be prevented. Laxative fruits and vegetables, such as oranges, apples, spinach and lettuce, will be helpful here, as will a glass of cold water taken on rising in the morning. The dietetic treatment of excessive thinness usually appears to one who is engaged in trying to reduce her weight as liberty to indulge in all the good things of this life. However, it is sometimes more difficult to build up a thin person than to reduce a stout one; restriction of diet and persistence in active exercise are practically certain to cause a loss of weight, while many factors, besides a too-slender diet, may be at the bottom of the thin woman's condition. Diseases of many different organs, a run-down nervous condition, too much hard work and too little rest, improper food, and disorders of the digestive tract are among the causes that may produce malnutrition, and the first measure adopted by the painfully thin person should be a frank talk with her family physician, as the diet required may not be that intended especially for increasing weight, but one that shall improve nutrition by remedying the defective working of some organ or system of the body. It is practically hopeless to attempt to build up a patient when the proper conditions cannot be secured; where there is no possibility of relief from a severe physical, mental or nervous strain, where a sufficient amount of sleep is impossible, or where there can be no escape from an unhygienic way of life, the wisest dietetic measures will accomplish as much as can be expected of them, if they merely enable the body to hold its own without further loss of weight and strength.